Skins: Season 3 Opening
Skins is a British teen drama which follows a group of teenage friends through their sixth form life. With intentional amateur actors, the portrayal of such things as drugs, alcohol and mental illness has captured a huge young audience and has become one of the most well known British TV dramas.
The props used in the opening are significant as they help set the scene, the use of cigarettes and alcohol suggest the characters aren't from the most pristine backgrounds due to it being under aged drinking and smoking. The opening is interlinked with a set of video filters and CGI such as building or object outlines, which breaks up character footage. These filters, in this case, mainly consist of colourful shadows and often graffiti which also add to the setting of the scene and location. Already from this short extract we can tell the series is filmed in a rough urban area as we can see numerous flat blocks and terraced housing on what seems to be a council estate. The setting fits in perfectly with the genre of this programme.
The characters all have a close up camera shot in the opening credits and when the episode is about them a personal short shot is added to the end of just them. The characters look like typical school rebels/ drop outs and act as party, sex and drug orientated. The use of amateur actors really increases the realism as there is not much change in character voice or physique. The costumes are also very realistic and are kept on a casual basis as. As far as differences go, the group all seem to dress and appear differently, from girly girl Pandora to immigrant Thomas and cool chick Effy. The twins stand out in this opening to me as they both look identical yet dress completely different, to me this could be expressing that the girls personalities are completely different. All characters are dressed well, and fit into the typical southern, inner-city teen scene which contributes highly to the realism and mise en scene positively.
The use of drugs, alcohol and the specific setting provides the viewer with ideas of criminology (also shown by graffiti). In terms of lighting, the lights go darker and music goes deeper as things get more intense e.g the partying and kissing. The kisses express that this ' group of friends' may not just be that and to the viewer this suggests there will be relationships and probably arguments to do with this. In terms of camera use, there is mainly tracking shots into zoom shots on particular characters personal section of the opening. At the end we see a group shot of them walking together towards the camera. This could signify that they are all a very close group and meet very often and see a lot of each other.
The music used is 'Skins theme tune' by Fat Segel and it is quite cheery music and quite uniquely to skins, this song is slightly modified each season. Its quite happy and fast paced and sets a good feeling to the audience. The use of no lyrics leaves the song being unpredictable which could relate to the series including ups and downs and numerous plot twists so audiences wont know what to expect. The first shot is of smoke and then it zooms out to reveal a male character (Cook). Smoke is normally related to danger so at this first moment it leaves the viewer to wonder whether Cook is a dangerous character or the ring leader of the group, as he seems in this opening to have authority or if they just look up to him.
Make up in the opening is used as it was just a normal day in the lives of the characters. The is not much presentation of mood or events through the use of make up in this opening which I think adds to the realism and mise en scene of the opening.
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